30 December 2014

Books: The Severed Streets By Paul Cornell (2014)




Desperate to find a case to justify the team’s existence, with budget cuts and a police strike on the horizon, Quill thinks he’s struck gold when a cabinet minister is murdered by an assailant who wasn’t seen getting in or out of his limo. A second murder, that of the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, presents a crime scene with a message… identical to that left by the original Jack the Ripper.  The new Ripper seems to have changed the MO of the old completely: he’s only killing rich white men. The inquiry into just what this supernatural menace is takes Quill and his team into the corridors of power at Whitehall, to meetings with MI5, or ‘the funny people’ as the Met call them, and into the London occult underworld. They go undercover to a pub with a regular evening that caters to that clientele and to an auction of objects of power at the Tate Modern. Meanwhile, the Ripper keeps on killing and finally the pattern of those killings gives Quill’s team clues towards who or what is really doing this.

Paul Cornell’s second book (see London Falling) in his urban fantasy series continues the mash-up between almost every supernatural movie or TV series and the police procedural. The book took a bit to get going –as did the first book- but this one takes longer. Perhaps because the characters were all doing something separate, trying to investigate these events, but I felt the book was a bit messy.

And then, Cornell pulls out a bizarre twist that features real-life author Neil Gaiman. At first I thought this was just an odd cameo, but Cornell has this version of Gaiman become an accessory to murder and helps the real villain of the story dispose of a body. I’m curious as to why Gaiman would attach himself to such a story that paints him in such a bad way. Perhaps it amused him, but it is a distraction. 

While it’s also disappointing that Cornell dips into the Ripper lore as many have done before, the last third of the book is well paced and comes to a satisfactory conclusion. All the characters seem to grow from the previous adventure, and like much British crime drama, some are not all likable. At times I have a bit of conflict with this, but I realize it’s more my thinking than writers. I grew up in a media culture that had clear differences in such roles, where the good guys had flaws, but none that made them so unappealing you hoped they died.

Books Read in 2014


I finish 2014 with 41 books being read (including the one re-read, The Hobbit). That's up three books from 2013 and ties with what I read in 2012. 

Having no life does help, I guess. Being single and poor makes doing things trickier. Not that I want to come off as all passive/aggressive, you know. :-)

Anyways, I've sort of returned to my roots with reading a bit more science fiction, but I'm still very much open to reading almost anything that catches my attention. Plus, I still have a list of books on my Amazon Wish List that covers a few different genres. It is, in the end, a never ending queue that I never finish.

And I'm okay with that. 

Onto 2015. 



01.   The Hobbit by J.R.R Tolkien
02.   Every Dead Thing by John Connolly
03.   Red Rising by Pierce Brown
04.   The Prisoner of Heaven by Carlos Ruiz Zafon
05.   The Map of Time by Felix J. Palma
06.   Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn
07.   Dark Places by Gillian Flynn
08.   The Night Circus by Erin Morgensten
09.   Where Did You Go Bernadette? By Maria Semple
10.   Creativity by Ed Catmull
11.   The Serpent of Venice By Christopher Moore
12.   The Runes of the Earth By Stephen R. Donaldson
13.   Fatal Revenant By Stephen R. Donaldson
14.   Veronica Mars: The Thousand Dollar Tan Line By Rob Thomas and Jennifer Graham
15.   Against All Things Ending By Stephen R. Donaldson
16.   The Truth About the Harry Quebert Affair By Joel Dicker
17.   The Goldfinch By Donna Tartt
18.   Mr. Mercedes By Stephen King
19.   Cibola Burns By James S. A. Corey
20.   In the Woods By Tana French
21.   Last Call By Tim Powers
22.   The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie By Alan Bradley
23.   Expiration Date By Tim Powers
24.   Fault Lines By Tim Powers
25.   The Likeness by Tana French
26.   The Silkworm By Robert Galbraith
27.   The Bat By Jo Nesbo
28.   Alive in Necropolis by Doug Dorst
29.   When HARLIE was One By David Gerrold
30.   Jumping Off the Planet By David Gerrold
31.   Bouncing Off the Moon By David Gerrold
32.   Leaping to the Stars by David Gerrold
33.   Recent History By Anthony Giardina
34.   You Might Remember Me: The Life and Times of Phil Hartman By Mike Thomas
35.   Revival By Stephen King
36.   Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? By Philip K. Dick
37.   Under the Eye of God By David Gerrold
38.   Covenant of Justice By David Gerrold
39.   Blade Runner 2: The Edge of Human By J.W. Jeter
40.   Starman Jones By Robert Heinlein
41.   Severed Streets By Paul Cornell
 

25 December 2014

Books: Starman Jones By Robert Heinlein (1953)


I've not read much of Robert Heinlein novels. And what I did read was well over 30 years ago. But since, in some way, I've decided to read some classic science fiction, I picked up his 1953 "juvenile" novel Starman Jones

Maximilian "Max" Jones is a poor boy from the Ozarks in some dystopic future Earth. He also possesses a talent -eidetic memory- and who dreams of going into space like his dead uncle.When his widowed mother remarries a loathed neer-do-well, he seizes the opportunity and heads off to Earthport with his uncle's books and hope. He falls in with a a quiet man who first betrays him and later befriends him. The Sam want's to go back to space as well and hatches a plan to get them on-board a starship as crew. By good luck, Max -who is very good at math as well as having a perfect memory- gets a chance to apprentice as an astrogator and winds up standing a watch when the head astrogator suddenly dies. Things go from bad to worse when the elderly Captain and the paranoid assistant astrogator manage to muff a Jump and lose them in uncharted space.

It's an enjoyable novel, even if Heinlein's future was not very prophetic -as computers are used to navigate the ship, but they're more like giant pocket calculators than anything else and need humans to operate. Plus the ending is a bit ludicrous -even if Max has the math skills and memory to program the computer to Jump back to their universe, it simply more "magic"than science. The villain -a fellow crew member- is a bit cartoonish and the crew itself get little (especially the women) in the way of full development, but Max is fun enough that book is still a worthy read.

15 December 2014

Books: Blade Runner 2: The Edge of Human by J.W. Jeter (1995)


I remember, back in 1995, when K. W. Jeter began a new series of books (three in all, eventually) that were sequels to both Philip K. Dick's Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? and the movie version of that book, 1982's Blade Runner.

Of course, up until a few weeks ago, I had not read the novel by Dick (and that reading was precipitated by me seeing the film again). But knowing that Jeter (a long-time friend of the late author) had been authorized by Dick's Estate to continue the themes presented in both the 1968 book and the film, after I actually got done with Androids, I checked out this book at the library.

Beginning several months after the events of the film, Deckard has retired to an isolated shack outside the city, taking the replicant Rachael with him in a Tyrell transport container, which slows down the replicant aging process. He is approached by a woman who explains she is Sarah Tyrell, niece of Eldon Tyrell, heiress to the entire Tyrell Corporation and the human template for the Rachael replicant. She asks Deckard to hunt down the "missing" sixth replicant. At the same time, the human template for Roy Batty hires Dave Holden, the blade runner attacked by Leon, to help him hunt down the man he believes is the sixth replicant - Deckard. Deckard and Holden's investigations lead them to re-visit Sebastian, Bryant, and John Isidore (from the book), learning more about the nature of the blade runners and the replicants. When Deckard, Batty, and Holden finally clash, Batty's inhuman fighting prowess leads Holden to believe he has been duped all along and that Batty is, and always was, the sixth replicant. 

I give kudos to Jeter for trying to meld the two media products together, but to be honest, instead of creating a new narrative, the author spends way too much time creating one contrivance after another, shoehorning plot points in like Mary Shelly's Doctor Frankenstein in some desperate attempt not to fully admit that the book and the movie are really two different visions of same story and should be treated that way.

My understanding is the conspiracy theme Jeter pulls out (someone is out to end the reign of the blade runners) is more or less designed to cover plot holes that have been identified by fans of original movie -such as Leon's ability to bring a gun into the Tyrell building, or the reference to the sixth replicant. Also, the character of Sebastian died in the movie, yet he is alive in this sequel. Pris was clearly stated as being a replicant in both the movie and the original novel, yet in Jeter's story he claims she was human. Pris was clearly destroyed by Deckard in both the movie and the original novel and that Sebastian has the ability to bring Pris back to life as a replicant unwittingly introduces numerous problems: the book implies that Sebastian somehow was able to do this without realizing that her original body was human. It is likewise unclear why Deckard would have left her, or any suspected replicant he retired, in a state from which they could be repaired.

The book does rely too heavily on the film more than the original tome, which clearly indicates that the folks behind this continuation thought that audience who would read this novel would feel more comfortable if this new series monkeyed Ridley Scott's take than Philip K. Dick's one. But to be honest, the only ones who might've read this were the hardcore fans of the original tale (and not, I think, the movie -which is a completely different fan base). But they would be disappointed to find how much Edge of Human is not really a Dick story.

Which is a shame really, because Dick's story was so good.

In the end, this book was constructed like sequel to a movie and a novel that never intended to have a sequels. In Jeter's attempt to explain the plot holes of both, it reads too much like fan-fiction, ala Star Trek; he spends way too much time creating an overly complicated tale of conspiracy, lies and deceit and then smashes us over the head with those ideas to drive home his point that he is trying to fill in all the blanks. It is then that you eventually realize why there's never been a movie sequel to Blade Runner -because it's just too complicated to move the story further- plus, more importantly, why the estate of Philip K Dick should've just left well enough alone. 

13 December 2014

Books: Covenant of Justice (Trackers #2) By David Gerrold (1994)

The Phaestor have established a reign of blood and terror. Now the genetically engineered predators have set in motion their final plan for the complete enslavement of the galaxy. But they will not go unopposed. For on numerous worlds, humans, androids, and bioforms have joined forces against their vampiric overlords. As those entrusted with the wisdom of the galaxy sanction the struggle against the Phaestor, a cunning Vampire war queen, her ambitious suitor, and the fierce and invincible Dragon Lord vie for total domination. Standing in the way are the rebels from Thoska-Roole: a band of malcontents, outnumbered and pursued, fighting for their freedom, their lives, and the future of the stars.

The continuation of Trackers now focuses more on Sawyer and Finn as they lead the rag-tag group across the stars in search of a TimeBinder who can aide them in bringing down the Phaestor's. Here Gerrold continues to make the action and the future space traveling universe very real. Like the last one, the humor is key to the novel's success. The delicate balance of believable sibling rivalry and not falling into typical sitcom one-liners is handled very well here. 

Still, there was many times I felt I was reading Gerrold's take on Star Wars -though the mythology of that franchise has been around since forever. It's not to say that's a bad thing, as the characters do react more logically than most in this genre, but there was never a doubt the ending though. 

Gerrold continues to put his characters into moral dilemma's and gives us a great ideas on how to solve them. That's what good science fiction does, it tests the human condition, it puts humanity up to the light, and how we react to that is what defines us. I'm also learning, as I read his stuff, he likes court room drama. He repeats those set pieces in other novels.

29 November 2014

Books: Under the Eye of God (Trackers #1) By David Gerrold (1993)




They were once humanity's last hope; a race of genetically engineered killing machines known as the Phaestor and their army of deadly Moktar Dragons. Now, the enemy long vanquished, the Phaestor themselves have become the enemy, seizing control of the galaxy and subjugating all lesser species—including humans—to feed their appetite for terror and blood. On a small, insignificant planet called Thoska-Roole, a ragtag alliance of humans, androids, and bioforms make a last desperate stand against Phaestor domination. Among their number are two bounty hunters, a mercenary starship captain, and a disgraced reptilian warrior. As the Phaestor begin a new reign of unprecedented terror, these rebels prepare to strike back against their vampire overlords and bring revolution to the stars.

Gerrold does a great job of World Building here, and while times I felt he spent too much setting up the story (as I read I began to wonder if his original intention was to write one book, but as he continued setting up the premise, he realized the story was going to take two books. But I could be wrong) he uses an engaging tongue-in-cheek approach by adding a pair of quick-talking human rogues as anti-heroes. Once again, though, the villains sometimes come off as cartoonish and unredemptive in any possible way, even though I kind of like Lady Zillabar, who chews the scenery with great gusto. 

 This is pure adventure storytelling here, and not a lot of Gerrold's patented look at humans and their destructive ways.

24 November 2014

Books: Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? By Philip K. Dick (1968)




Back in 1982, when Blade Runner was released, I was a 19 year-old nerd who was into space operas and fantasy books. I was aware of hard science fiction, the works of artists such as Robert Heinlein, Isaac Asimov, Ray Bradbury (though his genre was more “dark fantasy”), Arthur C. Clarke and Philip K. Dick, but I never seemed entranced with them. As noted before, I found them difficult to read, and since I cared less about the mechanics of real science (how space travel was really difficult and that the “warp speed” the Enterprise traveled at was more made up magic than real science), I found the lectures that these writers tended to do about real space travel boring. I wanted action; I wanted adventure without all the explanations on how much fuel was need to get in and out of orbit of a planet, or how much water and air was really needed to sustain humans traveling between the stars. Then there was the fact that –in real life- traveling out of solar system and to the closest star system (Andromeda) would take generations upon generations to accomplish. Movies like Star Wars and TV series like Star Trek just ignored that aspect of space travel and I was fine with it.

As best as I can remember (because I really have very little memory of my first 10 to 12 years of life), reading was not huge in my family. While it never was encouraged or discouraged, I don’t remember any of my family members entranced by reading. And a lot of science fiction fans of my age and older started reading pulp magazines like Astounding Science Fiction, The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Asimov's Science Fiction, and Weird Tales along with many others. Those contained many stories written by authors, during what’s called The Golden Age of Science Fiction, like E.E. Smith, Theodore Sturgeon, Harlan Ellison, Asimov, Heinlein, A. E. van Vogt, Lester del Rey, HP Lovecraft and many others. While I think I was aware of them, I never read any of them. I later realized that I just started reading full length novels, and skipped over the whole short-story era of all genres, not just science fiction.

So since I jumped over the short-stories –and even today, I don’t read that sub-group of fiction- I seemed to miss out on all those classic authors I list above. And now, as I try to find things to read, I’ve discovered that maybe my future reading lies in the past.

This brings me back to Blade Runner and the novel it was based upon.

As noted, by 1982 I was in full fantasy and space opera mode. While I saw Blade Runner when it was released theatrically back then, I think I more or less saw it because it starred Harrison Ford, who had two Star Wars films and Raiders of the Lost Ark under his belt. He was, at the time, a certified action star. I also had seen Alien and was intrigued by director Ridley Scott, so I think I went into the film with the idea that while it was hard science fiction, it was still going to be an action film. 

I think, maybe, I liked the film, even if I did not fully understand it. Yes, you would think a 19 year-old would have ability to fully comprehend the film, but because of mind set –fantasy books and space operas- perhaps I chose not to fully grasp the themes of the film.

Then there was Philip K. Dick, who died just months before the film’s release of heart failure after suffering a massive stroke. I was aware of him, and Starlog Magazine (which had become a part of my life in 1979) had done many stories on him and the making of the film. I knew at the time that Dick was an important writer, one of the first post “Golden Age” writers who sort of took science fiction into the dark corners of our Id. He wrote about “sociological, political and metaphysical themes in novels dominated by monopolistic corporations, authoritarian governments, and altered states.” 

He also wrote tales that “reflected his personal interest in metaphysics and theology, drawing upon his own life experiences in addressing the nature of drug abuse, paranoia, schizophrenia, and transcendental experiences. He also wrote extensively on philosophy, theology, the nature of reality and science.”

But at that time, I felt little interest in reading that stuff. Again, perhaps, I felt not smart enough and incapable of fully understanding the themes, the analogies and metaphors that were spring up from the pages like a dark bean stalk. And so, over the last three decades, I’ve not read much of what I call hard core science fiction.

But again, I feel maybe I’ve lost something by not reading this genre. As I struggle to find books that engage my mind and make me ponder what little time I have left in this mad, mad, mad world, I’ve found that –maybe- this genre will help me understand why I am the way I am, why I’m a social invert and why I cannot seem to understand my place in the living world. Though, I think also, I might be asking too much of this genre.

What really made me want to read Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep was re-seeing the movie for the first time in, perhaps, twenty years. I knew that since the film adaptation was released Ridley Scott and the studio have tinkered with the film. According to Wikipedia, there have been several different versions of it: “The releases seen by most cinema audiences were: the U.S. theatrical version (1982, 116 minutes), known as the original version or Domestic Cut; the International Cut (1982, 117 minutes), also known as the "Criterion Edition" or "uncut version", which included more violent action scenes than the U.S. version. Although initially unavailable in the U.S., it was later re-released in 1992 as a "10th Anniversary Edition". Scott's Director's Cut (1991, 116 minutes) was made available in 1993. Significant changes from the theatrical version include: the removal of Deckard's voice-over; re-insertion of a unicorn sequence; and removal of the studio-imposed happy ending. Scott's The Final Cut (2007, 117 minutes) was released by Warner Bros. theatrically on October 5, 2007, and subsequently released on DVD, HD DVD, and Blu-ray Disc in December 2007. This is the only version over which Scott had complete editorial control.”

I saw the film under the stars at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery in West Hollywood about three-weeks ago. This was, apparently, the first time the film had been authorized to be played this way, and it was, also, the 2007 edition. What struck me was how good the film really is, and how many films of this genre have emulated it in the thirty-two years since its release.  I actually thought about the 2012 release of John Carter, the long-waited adaptation of the Edgar Rice Burroughs series of novels. While we can argue about how good the film is or was not until we’re blue in the face, one the many things that made it not work was it took too long for Hollywood to adapt it. In the end, writers stole whole heartily from the book, released in 1918. All those themes Burroughs helped create where woven into other books, other films and by the time John Carter was finally made, everyone sort of said, “have we not seen this before?”

Which, of course, you had; John Carter of Mars was so original in 1918, but by 2012 it seemed that film version was stealing from other films, when, in a sense, it help create the genre we love today. Today’s franchises, the superhero films, the Star Wars, the Star Treks, even (somewhat) the Golden Age of Science Fiction was created by picking the bones of authors like Burroughs and Jules Verne. 

Anyways, after watching the film (and seeing a special appearance by Sean Young, who in a brief and scattered speech, proved to the audience that all the rumors she was a few tacos short of a combination platter are pretty much true) and thinking on how good it was, how important this film was to the science fiction genre, I needed to read the book it was based upon. 

So while waiting for the book to be transferred in from some outer place within the Los Angeles County Library system (the Philistines that live in the suburbs do not seem to take kindly to novels that offer stories set outside popular fiction), I started reading stuff on the internet about Dick’s and Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep and Blade Runner. One thing I learned was the book would be somewhat different from the movie (so much so, that the studio wanted Dick to write an adaptation of the script into new novel instead of re-releasing his novel. He, of course, refused and eventually the novel was released, but under its new title of Blade Runner). 

The main plot follows Rick Deckard, a bounty hunter who is faced with "retiring" six escaped Nexus-6 brain model androids, the latest and most advanced model, while a secondary plot follows John Isidore, a man of sub-par IQ who aids the fugitive androids. In connection with Deckard's mission, the novel explores the issue of what it is to be human. Unlike humans, the androids possess no sense of empathy. In essence, Deckard probes the existence of defining qualities that separate humans from androids. It is set in 2021, sometime after something called World War Terminus where Earth is suffering from radioactive fallout. A lot of humans have left the planet (The U.N., it seems, is encouraging this emigration to off-world colonies, in hope of preserving the human race from the terminal effects of the fallout. One emigration incentive is giving each emigrant an "andy"—a servant android) and have colonized the stars (though how far they’ve gotten is never fully explored; only Mars gets any real attention) and the remainders –those with little wealth- live in cluttered, decaying cities in which radiation poisoning sickens them and damages their genes. Animals are rare and keeping and owning live animals is an important societal norm and status symbol. But many people turn towards the much cheaper synthetic, or electric, animals to keep up the pretense. Prior to the story's beginning Rick Deckard owned a real sheep, but it died of tetanus, and he replaced it with an electric one.

The story is set in and around the San Francisco Bay Area, one of the last places affected by the radioactive dust, especially on the peninsula to the south. It is monitored daily by meteorologists using the Mongoose weather satellite in Earth orbit. While still relatively habitable, the sandy deserts of Oregon to the north are highly contaminated by radiation. Rick Deckard stays in a building on the east side of the bay with his wife, Iran, who is depressed. J.R. Isidore lives on the peninsula south of San Francisco.

The main Earth religion is Mercerism, in which Empathy Boxes link simultaneous users into a collective consciousness based on the suffering of Wilbur Mercer, a man who takes an endless walk up a mountain while stones are thrown at him, the pain of which the users share. The television appearances of Buster Friendly and his Friendly Friends, broadcast twenty-three hours a day, represent a second religion, designed to undermine Mercerism and allow androids to partake in a kind of consumerist spirituality.

The main theme that runs through this novel (an apparently his other works) is the question, "What constitutes the authentic human being?" The androids appear to be human is every respect, but lack compassion or a soul. But as Deckard continues his job of eliminating the androids (they’re illegal on Earth) he begins to wonder if these andys –despite doing horrible things in pursuant of their goals- are more human than he is. 

In the end, the book is a wonderful read, filled with darkness, a wit and puzzling metaphors that make the reader ponder our own reality. His themes of blurring reality makes us wonder if we are truly the masters of our fate or just playthings to a grander master who has convinced us that we do have control over our fates. 

See the film, for it offers some of its own great metaphors (director Scott always thought that Deckard was a replicant, while star Harrison Ford wanted him to be human) that do not often appear in films, but the book is another thing altogether. 

Brilliant.